Carrasco poked Mignolet, motioning for him to ask about his sister. Mignolet came back to his senses and just wanted to ask Yumei, but Yumi asked him first: "Brother, what are you doing today?"

When Mignolet heard this, he had hatred on his face: "Those bastards want to rob us of the piano!"

Xiao Peng took out a cigar and handed it to Mignolet, who shook his head, and Carrasco took one.

"I've noticed a long time ago, I was holding the piano case when I was beaten, what the hell is in here?" Xiao Peng asked curiously. The black wood-wrapped cowhide violin case was obviously an old thing----- and such a case itself was extremely rare.

Mignolet was excited: "You know what? I found a violin made by Antonio Stradivarius!

Ya Li was surprised when she heard this, and Xiao Peng was confused: "Who?

Xiao Peng's only impression of the name 'Antonio' is the decent merchant in "The Merchant of Venice" compared to Shylock.

When Yali heard Xiao Peng's words, she laughed: "Antonio Stradivari is the best luthier master of Dali nearly five hundred years ago, a student of Niccolò Amati, and has been making luthiers independently since he was 24 years old. For the first twenty years, he followed Amati's style of luthier making, but later devoted himself to research and experimentation, and eventually surpassed Amati to become the greatest luthier. ”

Hearing Yali's words, Mignolet gave a thumbs up: "Wow, you know a lot, do you know the violin?"

Yali nodded: "Well, my family attaches great importance to music education, so almost all of my brothers and sisters know anything like violin, piano, etc., but it's just a hobby." ”

Xiao Peng pouted on the side, this is the so-called aristocratic door style?

Mignolet put the case on the table, and when he opened it, a simple violin was displayed in front of everyone, and he said with excitement on his face: "Look at the shape, the curvature of the layout, the thickness of the board, the finesse of the workmanship, the paint, and the carving of the headstock, all of which have reached the point of perfection! There is no Amarti style! It should be his later work! Do you know? His violin is a treasure collected by people and a model imitated by future generations, and the highest wish of every violinist and violin lover in his life is to own a famous Antonio Stradivari piano! According to research, Antonio made 612 violins, 18 violins and 63 cellos in his lifetime, so his violin is also known as '1/612'. ”

Xiao Peng scratched his head: "Is this piano very expensive?"

"The price of his piano is very average, the early works are generally around 500,000 US dollars, the later works are about 1 million, and the price of the best famous piano is almost 2 million. On the auction, the price can be even higher. But after deducting the auction commission, it's actually about one million. Although there is still some distance in price compared to those tens of millions of famous pianos, many of those pianos are hyped up, but in terms of quality and price, his piano is definitely the best. Arye replied.

"Can such a piano sell for millions of dollars?" Xiao Peng's eyes widened.

Mignolet smiled, "Trust me, Xiao, 'she' is worth the price!"

Yumi frowned and asked, "Where did you find this?"

Mignolet laughed: "I got it after a funeral." Looking at Xiao Peng's puzzled eyes, Mignolet explained: "That's right, in Europe, after many people pass away, their relatives will take out some of the deceased's inheritance and sell it, such as clothes, furniture, etc., Carrasco and I found this piano on such an occasion." It cost me three thousand euros!" Mignolet said with a smug look on his face.

Xiao Peng picked up the piano on the table, put it on his neck and played the violin a few times, and the sound was like sawing wood, and everyone frowned together.

Mignolet walked into Xiao Peng quietly and took the piano back from his hand, with an expression on his face as if to say, 'Okay, don't insult this piano.' ’

The women laughed together as they watched Mignolet's actions.

"Xiao, it seems that you don't know anything about the violin. It seems that you are not omnipotent. Jima Ward on the side wanted to ease the atmosphere and said with a smile.

Xiao Peng did not deny it: "Well, I really don't know much about violins, in our Huaxia, these are all 'Western musical instruments', not traditional instruments in our country." Naturally, I don't know much about the violin, and my understanding of the violin is in the 'violin hoax'. ”

"Poof. Listening to Xiao Peng's words, everyone laughed together.

There are many classic scams in the world, such as the 'gold mine scam' (selling things that are not worth much by spreading false news at high prices), the 'Spanish prisoner scam' (similar to the scam text messages I receive now: I am Andy Lau, I have lost my wallet now, you help me first, and I will pay you back later, of course, it is more clever); 'Delay schemes' (common in racecourses and stock markets, and now almost all of the so-called stock insider information is like this), 'romance schemes' (i.e., beauty schemes), Ponzi schemes (pyramid schemes), and so on. But when it comes to the most famous and common scam, it is definitely the 'violin hoax' and its variants.

And the reason why the 'violin scam' has endured is simple, it is a short-term scam that comes in quick money.

The so-called 'violin scam' was first like this: first, a scammer A played a down-and-out musician eating in a restaurant, and when he checked out, he pretended to find that he had forgotten the money, and then told the boss that his home was nearby, and he went back to get the money, and at the same time put the violin he had brought with him there as collateral.

Then scammer B appears on the scene, pretending to see the violin by accident, and immediately says that he is a collector and wants to buy the violin at a high price, say 100,000 dollars. The boss will say that he is only taking care of the violin, and scammer B leaves a business card, saying that if the owner is willing to sell the violin, he can contact him, and then scammer B leaves.

Liar A appears again, the boss realizes that Liar A doesn't realize that his violin is so valuable, so he offers to buy Liar A's piano, and Liar A will say that his piano is a family heirloom and has commemorative value, and then the two of you go back and forth, and finally Liar A reluctantly sells the piano to the boss. And when the boss wants to contact scammer B, the number on the business card is no longer available. So the boss bought a worthless broken piano at a high price, which is the so-called 'violin scam'.

This kind of scam is to take advantage of people's greed, and there are many variants derived from this scam, such as in the current shopping mall, there will be such a situation: a supplier contacts the merchant, saying that he is willing to provide a certain product to the merchant, asking for cooperation, and a few days later, there will be 'just' customers who demand this kind of goods, hoping to buy in large quantities, and the price is good. It's like pie in the sky, but if the merchant does buy it, he can only cry with a pillow in the end----- because the customer who needs the product has disappeared.

"What are you laughing at, I really know this about the violin. Xiao Peng shrugged: "Do you drink beer? Craft beer from the Roman Abbey." He asked Carrasco and Mignolet.

"You'll have to have two drinks. Neither Carrasco nor Mignolet refused.

Xiao Peng poured two beers for the two of them and handed them to them: "Are today's people trying to rob your piano? You got such a precious piano and didn't put it in the bank? Isn't this asking for trouble?"

Mignolet took a sip of his beer glass and said, "That Benteke is also a second-hand merchant in Waterloo, and a well-known bully of ours, who once let him know that I have this violin. He wanted to buy it, but the price he offered was so low that we didn't agree. Put it in the bank. ”

"And what's going on today?" asked Yumi, puzzled.

Mignolet said, "Yumei, my little sister, don't you think it's inappropriate for me and Carrasco to still live with his parents? ”

The Belgians are very similar to the Chinese people, more than 70% of the people here have their own houses, but when it comes to this, they are a little different from the Chinese, they just buy a piece of land and build a house by themselves.

Saying this, Mignolet pointed to the case on the table: "This is my house with Carrasco! We were in a hurry to sell it, so we put it on the Internet, and Courtois contacted us to buy it." ”

Yumi's eyes widened: "You won't take him to the bank to see Jean, why did you come here?"

Mignolet sighed after hearing this: "He asked us to come here to trade. The price he gave was great, and it was a public place, such a big flea market, I thought they wouldn't dare to come nonsense, who would have thought that he and Bentek would be in the same group. ”

After hearing this, Yali asked, "How much did he bid?"

Mignolet was stunned when he heard this: "It's useless for him to bid as much as he wants, just to deceive us about the price we made up." ”

Ally smiled, "You guys talk about it." ”

Mignolet sighed, "Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars." ”

Yali thought for a while: "I'll pay the same price, can I transfer this piano to me?"

Xiao Peng was stunned: "What did you buy this piano for?"

"My mother collects antique violins. ”

Xiao Peng frowned: "Collect antique violins? There is really nothing you don't collect, then again, is the timbre of this antique violin really better than a new one?"

Mignolet heard Xiao Peng speak layman's words again, and hurriedly said: "Of course! The antique piano is far more than hard work in terms of tone and feel. Otherwise, why do so many violinists want antique virtuoso pianos?"

When Yali heard this, she shook her finger: "Ugh." Mignolet, I don't agree with this, it's the violinist who finds the right violin for himself. An antique piano is not necessarily better than a new one. ”